Baseball: For prospects, minor leagues make a minor difference

It's a good thing our Commonwealth has the Registry of Motor Vehicles, since that saves baseball's minor leagues from being the least efficient organization in the country.

Maybe it is a reaction to seeing how badly Boston's farm system has faltered this year, but exactly what purpose do farm systems serve any more? Look around the game — most rosters are populated by players who were signed and developed by other teams. If one of the purposes of a farm system is to teach players an organizational philosophy, provide consistent instruction and promote a sense of team — it doesn't work if those players wind up wearing another uniform.

The waste of time and money in creating a farm system is enormous. The number of minor leaguers with even a faint hope of playing in the majors is tiny. Teams surround two potential big leaguers with 20 other guys in uniform just so they can schedule games and not just do long batting practices.

When the Red Sox realized that their 2014 season had fallen apart, they didn't go get minor leaguers, they got major leaguers — players somebody else developed.

This is not to suggest there should be no minor leagues. The National League, the first major league, began play in 1876. The first minor leagues started up in 1877. They majors and minors always co-existed, although not necessarily peacefully. Until 1920 or so, when the Cardinals' Branch Rickey invented the farm system, minor league owners signed young players, let them learn the game, then sold them to higher leagues.

Why not do that again? Why should baseball employ hundreds of people in player development, spend millions on salaries, transportation, equipment, etc. — and bring up two good players a year? Each season, more and more accomplished players enter the game from Japan and Cuba, never having been in a North American farm system. They are expensive, but in the long run, probably less expensive than the perennial expense of maintaining the infrastructure necessary for a farm system.

Farm systems don't just develop players. They develop managers (John Farrell was a farm director), and general managers (so was Ben Cherington). They develop broadcasters, coaches, groundskeepers and even fans. Minor league teams can mean a lot to their cities, and there is no better example of that than Pawtucket.

This can all still happen without minor league teams being affiliated with major league ones. It's just that, if it does, there will be many fewer minor league teams, and minor leagues.

Rickey invented the farm system because his Cardinals did not have enough money to buy good players from minor league owners. So, he bought entire teams of cheap, unproven players, figuring that a few of them would eventually become stars, and he was right.

There are no secrets in baseball anymore. All the good players are identified early — scouted, analyzed, videotaped. When the best ones are drafted, they sign for millions of dollars, then are surrounded by players signed for Susan B. Anthony dollars. It makes no sense, but then again, when has that made a difference in baseball.

Baseball Jeopardy

Answers

1. The last team the Red Sox swept in a five-game series.

2. According to the official roster dimensions released by the team, the heaviest player in Red Sox history.

3. The only player on the current Red Sox roster who received a vote in last year's American League Most Valuable Player balloting.

Questions below.

Cherington goes unnoticed

There was a time when Red Sox general managers were Bay State royalty, but that has changed. Like, one afternoon during the home stand that ended today, there was Cherington wending his way through a throng on Brookline Avenue on his way to Fenway, and not one fan seemed to even recognize him, let along stop him and offer some, er, advice. … To that group of four fans who sent along a traditional letter via the post office, but did not include a return address, inquiring about a key member of the Red Sox, here's as much of an answer as you'll get — you are very observant. … So, if I were John Henry and owned the Red Sox, I'd do this — tell my fans that this season is over, even if the schedule has games left on it. That I'm putting David Ortiz, Mike Napoli, Koji Uehara, Dustin Pedroia and Junichi Tazawa on standby status so they can rest up for next year. If you want your money back for the remaining home games, I'll send you a check. … Edward Mujica can take up the closer slack from Uehara, and it is interesting how well Mujica has pitched since the games stopped meaning anything. Since July 11, his earned run average is 0.66. He is signed through 2015, and maybe his second-half improvement can trick another team into taking on his contract. … Never let it be said that Red Sox ownership does not pay close attention to detail. The team owns the parking garage behind the Green Monster, the one where long home runs land and shatter windshields, and who was walking around the garage last week checking on the vehicles but CEO Larry Lucchino. … With Rusney Castillo headed for Boston, and likely to be a rookie in 2015, John Farrell was asked what he thought of Cuban and Japanese players as candidates for Rookie of the Year. "Do they have an advantage? Certainly they do, but by rule they are rookies." … One-hitters don't happen all that often, even with offense down in baseball, so you have to think that Rubby De La Rosa has to be especially unlucky in being the losing pitcher in two already this season. However, it's happened before to Sox pitchers, and a couple of times at least. Joe Hesketh was the losing pitcher in two no-hitters in 1992 and Sonny Siebert had that happen to him in 1972. That '92 team, which the 2014 Sox may surpass as Boston's weakest-hitting team since the DH was adopted, suffered three one-hit losses. … Best wishes to a pair of Red Sox Hall of Famers who have been hospitalized. They are the pride of Hopedale, Sox archivist Dick Bresciani; and former manager Joe Morgan, who had a brief overnight stay and is counting the days until October, when he can play golf again.

Hitting coach on firing line?

It seems certain that there will be some firings when this Red Sox season is over. Bobby Valentine is not around to be fired this time, so the terminations could be spread out. One reader suggests that Boston needs a new hitting coach, and it would not be shocking if Greg Colbrunn becomes a scapegoat.

Not surprising, but probably not fair. For one thing, Colbrunn has had health problems that are not his fault. For another, he didn't let Jacoby Ellsbury walk as a free agent and replace him with Jackie Bradley Jr.; he didn't insist that Xander Bogaerts was ready for the majors; he didn't sign A.J. Pierzynski; he didn't do the surgery on Shane Victorino's back.

Otherwise, the hitters from 2013 who returned in '14 are all performing close enough to their career levels to not blame the hitting coach. Ortiz's power numbers are excellent; Pedroia and Napoli are both off a bit, but Pedroia has been headed down for a while and Napoli's average is actually a smidgen above normal. Daniel Nava is a .300 hitter since coming back from the minors and Brock Holt seems to have thrived under Colbrunn.

Jeopardy questions

1. Who are the Blue Jays? Boston took five of five from Toronto at Fenway Park from July 1-4, 2002. The Sox have played only one five-game series since then and were swept by the Yankees at Fenway Park from Aug. 18-21, 2006.

2. Who is Bobby Jenks? Jenks was listed, officially, at 275 pounds. Sox management has said, off the record, that Rich Garces broke 300 pounds on occasion.

3. Who is Yoenis Cespedes? He finished 10th in the 2014 MVP voting with 41 points.

Catching up with…

Fourth outfielder Andy Tomberlin is the hitting coach for the White Sox Triple-A team in Charlotte; one-time prospect Luis Ortiz is the Indians minor league cultural development director; Doug Mientkiewicz of Game 4 fame is the manager of the Twins Florida State League team in Fort Myers;

Morgan's Magic hero Larry Parrish manages the Tigers Triple-A team in Toledo; catcher Danny Sheaffer is managing Princeton — the Rays team in the Appalachian League, not the Ivy League university; and Kyle Snyder is Tampa Bay's minor league pitching coordinator.

Contact Bill Ballou at wballou@telegram.com.

Through the years, the Red Sox have had 18 different last names that belonged to at least five different players. Smith, of course, leads the way, but there has been only one John Smith.